The Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry is always big, no matter the sport. But the Border Battle takes on a new level of meaning when it comes to women’s hockey. The Wisconsin and Minnesota women’s hockey teams are two of the strongest programs in the country every year, and that has led to their rivalry becoming extremely important, as it has often been the determining factor in conference and national championships.
Assistant coach Jackie Friesen was also a player for the Badgers from 2001-’05, so as someone who has been around the program for a long time, she understands how much this rivalry means to Wisconsin.
“The rivalry dates back to the beginning of the program,” Friesen said. “Anytime you play [Minnesota] I think the team is a little bit more excited, it’s an intense rivalry so you really want to take it to them, and obviously if you can get a win it’s pretty special.”
Wisconsin and Minnesota have two of the most successful hockey programs for both men and women alike. Both universities thrive in the frozen Midwest each winter, pummeling opponents. The women’s program at each respective school is especially impressive, having combined for four of the last five national titles, all the while producing 21 representatives in the past two Olympics. The two squads have combined to post dominant statistics in in all areas of women’s hockey. The Badgers take on the Golden Gophers this Friday and Saturday but, unfortunately, recent history is not on the Badgers’ side. Since Wisconsin won the national championship in the 2010-’11 season, they have posted a record of 1-16-2 against Minnesota, with the lone win coming back in Oct. 2011.
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Minnesota has established this impressive run by finding the net with more frequency. Despite the two squads having nearly identical penalty minutes per game, shots per game and saves per game, Minnesota has scored nearly an entire goal more per outing. This is more than likely the result of greater puck movement, which is demonstrated by Minnesota averaging 7.4 assists per game versus Wisconsin’s 5.8 in the same time frame.
While most of those losses have been in the regular season, three of the losses in particular were tough to swallow, as they came on hockey’s biggest stage: the Frozen Four.
In the 2011-’12 season, Wisconsin, the reigning national champion, found itself in the championship game once again, this time against familiar foe Minnesota. The Badgers went down 2-0 early, but were able to mount a comeback and level the score before a Minnesota penalty put them in the lead permanently. Wisconsin outshot Minnesota 44-25, including 20 shots in the final period alone, but Minnesota took home the title.
Wisconsin met Minnesota in the semifinal of the Frozen Four in the 2013-’14 season, and the game had even more swings than the last playoff meeting between the two schools. Wisconsin led 1-0 at the end of the first and 3-2 at the end of the second, but a late surge from Minnesota propelled them past Wisconsin 5-3, ending the Badgers’ championship hopes for the second time in three years. Then-junior forward Brittany Ammerman, now graduated, expressed the team’s disappointment to UWBadgers.com after the game.
“Obviously it wasn’t enough,” Ammerman said. “We put our hearts out there, and we just couldn’t get bounces our way.”
Just last year, the Badgers again faced off against Minnesota in the semifinal. The Badgers drew blood first with a goal scored early in the second by then-freshman forward Annie Pankowski, but Minnesota answered with three of their own in the second to make it 3-1. Despite again outshooting the Gophers 35-23, Wisconsin finished off its season with a loss to Minnesota for the third time in four years.
Friesen had to deal with some big losses to Minnesota in her playing days, and she also expressed her disappointment with those games.
“Definitely frustrating,” Frieson said. “You want to beat them, especially in the big games, and we’ve been so close and just a couple bounces here and there kept us off of that.”
The frustration Wisconsin has had to deal with these last few years against Minnesota have given the players no shortage of motivation to finally overcome the Gophers.
Senior defenseman Courtney Burke, no stranger to these games, fully agrees the team is highly motivated to beat Minnesota.
“[The losses to Minnesota] for sure do, it’s a rivalry weekend so no matter what we are going to get up for these games more than usual,” Burke said.
Head coach Mark Johnson is experienced in the animosity between the two squads, having coached for the Badgers for the past 13 years, as well as coaching seven Badgers and three Gophers in the 2010 Olympics. Mark was also a player under his father, UW legend Bob Johnson, for three seasons at UW, when he won a National Championship in 1977. With all that familiarity with the Border Battle, Johnson also understands the energy surrounding this rivalry, in women’s or men’s hockey.
“There are some weekends you’re scratching your head and trying to figure out what you can do to motivate your team because you’re playing XYZ that weekend,” Johnson said. “History tells me as a player, when I played against the Gophers, it didn’t take you much to get you motivated.”
The biggest success Wisconsin has had against Minnesota was in the 2005-’06 season, when it defeated Minnesota in the championship to earn the first title in program history. Friesen was no longer a player that year, but was still involved with the team as an undergraduate assistant coach.
“To beat anyone on the biggest stage is pretty awesome, but to beat the cross-border rival was fantastic,” Friesen said. “I’ll definitely remember that for the rest of my life.”
There is still a lot of season left for the Badgers, regardless of what happens this weekend against Minnesota. But history shows beating Minnesota is a sign that Wisconsin has what it takes to compete for a national championship, as the Badgers are 8-3-3 against the Gophers in the three seasons they won the championship combined, a much better record than in any of the seasons that ended in disappointment.
Junior forward Sarah Nurse, who has been heavily involved in the Border Battle since she got here, said that defeating the Gophers would really help with the Badgers’ mindset for the rest of the season.
“We beat the Gophers, who can top us now?”
